Nickelodeon Animation Studio to Open

Published: September 20, 1999

Bill Cosby has always preferred to make his television shows, like the current CBS sitcom ''Cosby,'' in New York City.

Now, the cartoon show based on Mr. Cosby's beginning-reader books, called ''Little Bill,'' will be made in New York, too, because Nickelodeon, the children's cable network owned by Viacom Inc., is opening a major new digital animation studio at 1633 Broadway in Manhattan next month, at an expected cost of about $10 million.

Because cartoons are expensive and time-consuming to make, the bulk of animation production has been done overseas, mostly in Asian countries, in recent decades. Nickelodeon, however, has departed from that pattern, building two new animation studios in the last 18 months. The other is an enormous facility in Burbank, Calif., which opened last March -- the first new animation studio in the Los Angeles area in 35 years.

In Burbank, Nickelodeon has five original cartoons in production as well as several movie development projects. The New York studio will take over making ''Blue's Clues,'' the innovative digitally animated show with a live host amid computerized pals, and ''Little Bill.''

Despite the title, ''Little Bill'' is not about Mr. Cosby's boyhood, but it is about a little boy and his family. It is scheduled to premiere on Nov.28, a Sunday, at 8 P.M.

Even more pleased than Mr. Cosby at the studio's New York location will be the many film school students who specialize in animation, and until now have mostly had to go to Los Angeles to find employment.

By opening up jobs for about 70 digital animation jobs in New York, Nickelodeon hopes to help spur the development of ''the next generation of creator-driven animation,'' said Albie Hecht, the network's president of film and television entertainment.